Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1887-02-12

lastly ate them greedily. 1t sounds horrible
enough, but, honestly, / never tasted any
thing so good as that raw meat In quar-
ter of an hour we were changed men. Our
life and our vigor came back to us, our fee
bic pulses grew strong again, and the blood
went cOursing through our veins. But
mindful of the results of overfeeding on
starving stOnachs. we were careful not to
eat too much, sto piping whilst we were still
hungry.
''Thank Cod y said Sir Henry; ''that brute
has saved our lives. What is it, Quater-
main%'
l rose and went to look at the antelope,
for was not certain. 1t was about the size
of donkey, with large curved horns. |
had never seen one like it before, the species
was new to me. 1t was brown with faint
red stripes, and thick coat. l afterward
discovered that the natives OF that wonder
full country called the species "Inco." It
was very rare and only found at great al.
titude where no other game would live. The
animal was fairly shot high up in the should
| er, though whose bullet it was that brought
1t down we could not, of course discover. ]
believe that Good, mindful of his marvellous
shot at the giraffe, secretly set it down to his
own prowess, and we did not contradict him.
| We had been so busy satisfying our starving
stomachs that we had hitherto not found
time to look about us. But now, having SET
Umbopa to cut off as much Of the best meat
as we were likely to be able to carry, we be.
gan to inspect our surroundings The mist
had now cleared away, for it was eight
o'clock, and the sun had sucked it up, 80 we
were able to take in all the country before
us at glance. know not how to describe
the glorious panorama which unfolded itself
to our enraptured gaze. have never seen
anything like it before, nor shall, suppose,
again.
Behind and over us lowered Sheba's
snowy breasts, and below, some five thousand
feet beneath where we stood, lay league
on league of the most lovely champaign
country. Here were dense patches Of lofty
forest there great river wound its silYery
way. To the left stretched a vast expanse
of rich undulating veldt or grass land, or
which we could just make out countless
herds of game or cattle at that distance we
could not tell which. This expanse appeared
to be rlnged in by wall of distant noun
talns. To the right the country was more OF
less mountainous, that is solitary hills stood
up from its level, with stretches OF cultiva-
ted lands between, among which we could
distinctly see groups of dome-shaped hutS.
The landscape lay before US like map in
which rivers flashed like silver snakes, and
Alp-like peaks crowned with wildly twisted
snoT-wreaths rose in solemn grandeur,
whilst over all was the glad sunlight and the
wide breath of Natures happy life.
Two curious things struck us as we gazed
First, that the country before US must lie at
least i've thousand feet higher than the des-
ert we had crossed, and secondly, that all
the rivers flowed from south to north. As
we had painful reasons to know, there was
no water at all on the southern side of the
vast range on which we stood, but on the
northern side were many streams, most of
which appeared to unite with the great river
we could trace winding away further than
we could follow it.
We sat down for awhile and gazed in
silence at this wonderful view. Presently
Sir Henry spoke.
Isn't there something on the map about |
Solomon's Great Roadp' he said.
nodded, my eyes still looking out over |
the far country.
"WeIl, look; there it isr' and he pointed
a little to our right.
Good and looked accordingly, and there, |
winding away toward the plain, was what |
appeared to be wide turnpike road. We had I
not see it at first because it, on reaching the /
plain. turned behind some broken country. /
We did not say anything, at least not much
we were beginning to lose the sense of won
der. Somehow it did not seem particularly |
unnatural that we should find sort OF
Roman road in this strange land. We ac-
cepted the fact, that was all.
Well" said Good, ''it must be quite near
us il we cut off to the right. Hadn't we bet
ter be making start?'
This was sound advice, and as soon as we
had washed our faces and hands i'll the
stream, we acted on it. For mile or so we
made our way over powders and across
patches of snow, till suddenly, on reaching
the top of the little rise, there lay the road
at our feet 1t was splendid road cut out
of the solid rock, at least fifty feet wide, and
well kept, but the odd thing
about it was that it seemed to begin there.
We walked down and stood on it, but one
single hundred PAGES behind Us, in the direc-
tion of Sheba's breasts, it vanished, the
whole surface of the mountain being strewn
with powders intersperSed with patches of
snow.
''What do you make of that, Quatermainw
asked Sir Henry.
shook my head, could make nothing of
It.
s.I have i'll" said Good; ''the road no
loubt ran right over the range and across
The desert the other side, but the sand of the
lesert has covered it up and above us it has
been oblterated by some volcanic eruption {
If molten lava"
This seemed a good suggestion; at any
ate we accepted it, and proceeded down
he mountain. 1t was very different busi-
less travelling along down hill on that mag
lificent pathway with full stomachs to what 9
t had been travelling uphill over the snow .
luite starved and almost frozen. Indeed. I
lad it not been for melancholy recollections
# poor VentvogePs sad fate, and of that Y
rim cave where he kept company with the s
I'D don, we should have been positively |
heerful. Notwithstanding the sense of un-
.nown dangers before us. Every mile we
walked the atmosphere grew softer and :
almier, and the country before us shone
Vith yet more luminous beauty. AS for !.
he road itself, never saw such an engineer
lg work, though Sir Henry said that the !
reat road over the st Gothard, in Switzer- ;
md was very like it No difficulty had
cen too great for the Old World engineer 2